A trip to Florida.

In my last blog post, two years ago, I detailed the history of the Lewis Shank family, and mentioned in passing that I wanted very much to go to Florida and find the place where my great-great-grandmother, Mary Wenger Shank, was buried. I finally got the opportunity two months ago, in April, when my husband was sent down for a software class at Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa Beach. We added a couple of days to his scheduled time so that we could go to Disney World and also visit the little town of Bowling Green, in Hardee County, a little more than an hour south of Orlando, where I had found Mary's grave on FindaGrave.com, an extraordinarily helpful site for any family history enthusiast.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I felt excited as we drove past the cattle barns and citrus groves...it felt like we were going to have an adventure. I was starting this trip with a couple of misconceptions and a few questions, most of which were cleared up, and of course, a host of new questions were created. There's so much we want to ask the people who can't give us answers!

The records I had from my grandmother indicated that Mary had died, and the family had lived, in DeSoto County, just to the south of Hardee County. So I was confused as to why Mary was buried in Bowling Green. I had researched the DeSoto county seat, and closest large town, Arcadia, about 30 minutes south of Bowling Green, and planned to go there once we had located the grave. Here's a map:

I'd been in touch with one of the Bowling Green city employees ahead of time and let her know when we were coming, and she very kindly met us and showed us where the grave was located. The city cemetery used to belong to the Methodist church across the street, but at some point the church deeded it to the city, and the city maintains it. We entered at the newest end, with lots of new tombstones with colorful flowers and other decorations, and drove down to the oldest end, where the trees were large and shady and the graves were quiet.

There was Mary's grave, under a huge old tree draped with Spanish moss. The Methodist church is visible in the background.

The gravestone is a nice polished block of dark gray granite, with a little bit of lichen on top. The writing reads:

MOTHER

MARY E. WENGER

WIFE OF L.H. SHANK

MAR. 1850 - JAN. 1894

The quality, the style and amount of engraving, and the word "Mother" make me think that Mary's children may have gone in together at a later date and had this marker erected, but I have no proof of that. There are no existing cemetery records to see where and when plots and markers were put in.

I was also intrigued that the stone refers to Mary by her maiden name, and then adds her husband's name. I'd love to know who decided on that wording, and why.

I felt sorry that I hadn't brought some flowers, and I had envisioned a quiet, solemn moment at the grave but the city employees who brought us there were very friendly and chatty, which was just fine, but not quite what I had planned! I was so grateful for their help and friendliness, though.

Bowling Green is a small, sleepy town that had its heyday 90 or 100 years ago, when people felt that inland Florida was a dandy place to spend a few weeks resting and recuperating  The main architectural feature on Route 17, just north of Main St., is the old Green Hotel, an impressive bit of Art Deco architecture. It was sitting empty with a realtor's sign in front of it, and apparently has been used for several different purposes since it was built.

Bowling Green also has an adorable train depot (Todd and I love old depots) right next to the railroad tracks that ran straight north and south through the center of town.

One of my misconceptions was that Mary had died somewhere to the south, in DeSoto County, and when I saw the depot, I speculated that maybe her body had been sent up to Bowling Green on the train, that perhaps Bowling Green was closer to wherever the Shanks lived than Arcadia was, and was the closest place with a cemetery. We were about to hop back in the car and prove me quite mistaken...I'll tell that story when I have a little more time.

The Shanks, Wengers, and Drivers, among others.

For Renate, once more we go leapfrogging through the family tree...

Here is our great-grandmother once again, Emma Anne Shank Fenton (1883-1967.) She was born in Missouri, one of the ten children of Lewis Henry Shank (1849-1932) and Mary Elizabeth Wenger Shank (1850-1894.)

Emma is an ancestor I want to learn more about. I've told the story of how she crossed the frozen Bighorn River with an injured child. I believe she was a quiet but tough woman. She must have had a difficult childhood--her mother was ill with tuberculosis, or consumption as they called it back then, and she passed away when Emma was just ten years old. Fortunately, Emma had a pile of older brothers and sisters, and I hope they took good care of her and her younger siblings.

Here are the Shanks, around 1890. Emma is the beautiful child right in the middle--I have always been struck by the delicacy of her face. From left to right we have Josephus, Mollie, Charles, Lewis, Sarah, Emma, Mary, Fannie, and John. Oldest son Jacob is not pictured (he had passed away in early 1890), and there was another son, Benjamin who died in 1888 as an infant. One more child, Florida Rose, was yet to be born.

As you might guess from the name Florida Rose, this last Shank child was born in Florida in 1892, where the family had moved in hopes of helping mother Mary's health. Emma told her kids about playing with baby alligators in the river, probably the Peace River in DeSoto County.

Unfortunately, the move to Florida did not help Mary Shank's health, and she passed away in 1894, when Florida Rose was not quite two. Emma spent the rest of her childhood and young adulthood in Missouri, helping to care for her three younger siblings and also her uncle Abraham Wenger's children, after their mother passed away.

Here is a closer shot of Mary Wenger Shank. I would very much like to get down to Florida and visit her grave.

Here is Lewis Henry Shank from the same picture.

And here is Emma as a young woman, on the right, with two of her sisters. I'm sure I've been told which sisters they are, but it is escaping me at the moment.

This is Lewis Henry Shank in his old age. I believe he re-married later in life, and then lived with his daughter Mollie and her husband Daniel Kauffman in Scottsdale, PA, until his death in 1932.

Emma Shank and her family were Mennonite through and through, going back many generations. Emma's brother John was a Mennonite minister and her brothers Joe and Charles were Mennonite missionaries who served in South America and India respectively.

Emma's parents were both born in Rockingham County, VA, a Mennonite enclave to this very day. Lewis Henry Shank was the son of Jacob Shank (1819-1892) and Mary Driver Shank (1824-1878.) The Shanks were either German or Swiss Mennonites, and came to America before the 1750s, and the Drivers (originally Treiber) were from Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany. (I am not sure if they were originally a Mennonite family or if that came later.) The first Driver/Treiber, Ludwig/Lewis (1730-1772), emigrated to America in 1749 on the ship Fane, settling in Pennsylvania, and his son Lewis Driver (1760-1835) (Mary Driver Shank's father) then moved to Virginia.

Jacob Shank's parents were Henry Shank, son of Bishop Henry Shank, the first Mennonite bishop in Virginia (1787-1839) and Elizabeth Heatwole Shank (1792-1836.) The Heatwole name was originally Hutwohl.

Back we go to Great-Grandma Emma! Her mother, Mary Wenger Shank, was the daughter of Abraham Wenger (1825-1870) and  Sarah Geil Wenger (1823-1892). The Wengers were originally Swiss Mennonites; the first Wenger in America was Christian Wenger (1698-1772), who emigrated in 1727 on the ship Molly with his wife Eve Grabiel/Graybill Wenger (1705-1790.) The Wenger family came from the Palatinate region of Germany, where they had moved a few generations before because of religious persecution in Switzerland. And like many Mennonite families, they settled in Pennsylvania, and then trickled down to Virginia a few decades later. Christian and Eve's descendants put up a stone in their honor--here it is, in the Groffdale Mennonite Church cemetery in Lancaster County, PA.

Abraham Wenger's father was Joseph Wenger (1794-1865), who was an indirect casualty of the Civil War. Joseph had been ill with a fever in the fall of 1864, and when Union soldiers coming through the Shenandoah Valley burned his barn along the way, he rushed out to help keep the fire from spreading to the house. It was too much for him, and he became ill again and died in early 1865.  

Abraham Wenger's mother was Barbara Beery Wenger (1795-1871.) The Beerys were another Swiss Mennonite family whose founder, Abraham Beery (1718-1799), emigrated in 1736. 

Here's a picture of Joseph and Barbara Beery Wenger's house in Rockingham County, VA.

Leapfrogging one more time, we go back to Great-Grandma Emma and move to her mother Mary, and then to Mary's mother Sarah Geil Wenger, wife of Abraham. Sarah's father was John Geil (1799-1889), who was a minister for 50 years and a bishop for 30 years. His family, the Geils, were German Mennonites. Sarah's mother's family were the Drivers, and here lies another small wrinkle in our family tree.

Sarah's mother was Mary Driver Geil (1804-1851) and she was the daughter of Lewis Driver (1760-1835). We are descended from Lewis Driver's son Daniel through our great-great-grandfather Lewis Henry Shank, and from Lewis Driver's daughter Mary through our great-great-grandmother Mary Wenger Shank. In other words, Lewis Driver is our fifth-great-grandfather twice over. In honor of that, let's look at his tombstone.

This is in a tiny cemetery called the Driver-Rife cemetery in very rural Rockingham County, VA. My dad and I were both down there several years ago and took a long and winding drive out into the country to find it. We drove up a dirt road, went too far and had to make an umpteen-point turn, pulled up in front of a house, and after asking the very nice man who lived there where in the world the cemetery was, we walked through his stubbly side yard and came upon it. Here are buried Lewis Driver and his wife Barbara Burkhart Driver (1765-1836), their son Daniel Driver, their daughter Mary Driver Geil and her husband John Geil, as well as some Reiff/Rife ancestors, from whom I am descended on my mom's side of the family. Dad's ancestors and Mom's ancestors, both in the same miniscule graveyard--that's the Mennonite way!

It is an absolutely beautiful place to be buried, on top of a gentle hill, looking out over other gentle hills, shaded by trees, almost silent. I'll always remember it.

The Hathaways and the Colemans.

Hello again, Renate! I'm picking up the Hathaway family from our great-great grandmother Lillian Sophronia Hathaway Fenton . Here she is again, on the left, with her grown-kids and a few grandkids.

A closer look at Lillian. She has a nice face.

Lillian Hathaway was born in Missouri in 1865, the middle of six children of Martin Van Buren Hathaway (1835-1905) and Esther Coleman Hathaway (1833-1906.) Here is Lillian as a young woman with her parents and siblings. Left to right: Martin, Mae, Carrie, Willie, Rose, Lillian and Esther.

 Lillian joined the Mennonite church as a young woman, and I would love to know the story of how she came to the church. There are other Mennonite Hathaways, so maybe several family members joined in her generation, but the Hathaways were not a Mennonite family originally.

My grandma Mary remembered her grandmother ("Grandma Lillie") very well, as she lived till 1946. She told me that Grandma Lillie was immensely interested in people and would know more about your business than you did yourself! Here is Lillian in old age.

Here she is with her son Clyde and his family: Florence, Mary, Walter, Helen, Esther behind (Lewis is missing) and Clyde, Emma and Lillian in front.

Lillian's father Martin Hathaway and her mother Esther Coleman Hathaway were both born in New York, and their families came to Illinois at some point. Here's a very old, very spotty picture of them...the one above is much better!

Esther Coleman Hathaway's parents were John Coleman (1795-1881) and Elsa or Elsie Greene (1794-1890). John Coleman's family was English, and he may have been born in Quebec, Canada--the records are contradictory. He served in the War of 1812 in the New York militia. Elsa Greene's father's family, the Greenes, have been in America since at least 1665, and her mother's family, the Nichols, date to the 1640s in America, and are Welsh in descent. John and Elsa Coleman lived such long lives, I am sure there must have been photos taken of them at some point. I would love to turn them up!

There are many tangles in my family tree, especially on my dad's side, and the Colemans are a bit of a tangle. You and I, Renate, are descended from John Coleman twice, through his daughter Esther above, and also through his son Perry Greene Coleman.

Perry Greene Coleman (1821-1900) was also born in New York like his sister, and married Amanda Sheppard (1823-1888.) They moved to Illinois and later to Missouri. In Illinois, their daughter and oldest child Sarah (Sally) Coleman married Orville Fenton in 1862. Remember Sally? Here she is again.

Bottom line: John Coleman, father of Esther and Perry, is our fourth-great-grandfather through Esther, and our fifth-great-grandfather through Perry. I've counted it up three times and I think that's right!

Back to the Hathaways, to Grandma Lillie's father Martin Van Buren Hathaway. The Hathaways are a very, very old American family--it appears that they date to the 1620s when Nicholas Hathaway came to Massachusetts colony from England. On Ancestry.com, the family has been dated back about 20 generations to William Hathaway, born in 1194, but I take everything I find on Ancestry with a large grain of salt, unless it is well-documented or I put it there myself.

We are also related to the Hathaways through marriage--our great-aunt Esther Fenton married Oliver Hathaway in 1945. Their sons Howard and James are thus twice descended from the Hathaway line, through both parents.

The Fentons.

Hi, Renate! I made this blog ages ago and never used it, so I thought it would be a good place to write down what I know about the Fentons and the Hathaways.

So you and I are second cousins...your mom, Ruth Fenton Adams, and my dad, John Clark, are first cousins. My grandma Mary Anne Fenton Clark (1924-2009) and your grandpa Lewis Grant Fenton were brother and sister.

Here are your grandpa Lewis (1911-1986) and your grandma Ruth Renata Abrahams Fenton (1918-1969.)

Here are Lewis and Ruth over the years. I don't know which girls are which in these pictures, but you probably recognize them. That's Joyce, I'm sure in the first picture.

So Lewis and his youngest sister Mary were two of the children of  Clyde Fenton (1887-1961) and Emma Anne Shank Fenton (1883-1967.) Grandma told me that when she was little, Lewis would put her on his lap at the dinner table so she wouldn't have to sit on the hard bench. I think he must have always had a soft spot for little kids, because my dad remembers how great Uncle Lewis was with babies. Lewis must have really been fond of my grandma, because I recently found out he mortgaged part of his farm to provide money for Grandma to build a house when she left my grandpa and they divorced.

Clyde and Emma Fenton had six kids: Lewis, Helen, Esther, Florence, Walter and Mary. Here are Clyde and Emma early in their marriage (Grandma says the hat covers Lewis's baby bump!) and then with Lewis as a baby.

Clyde and Emma met when she came to Missouri to keep house for her brother John Shank, who was an itinerant minister and church planter. The way Grandma told me, Emma was on her way from southern Missouri to Goshen, Indiana to go to college when she stopped in to see John in Marion County. She felt that someone needed to keep house for him, so she stayed and then met Clyde at Pea Ridge Mennonite Church, where John was preaching.

Grandma said that Emma never did get to go to college, but she did do some work in Goshen's high school program in 1909-1910. Here she is in one of the school's literary societies. Emma is easy to spot--she's the only one in "plain" clothes down on the right.

It's no wonder Emma left school life behind when she met Clyde--look how handsome he was!

Clyde and Emma did a lot of traveling in their early married life, taking Clyde's father Grant Fenton with them, because his health was poor and they were trying to find a climate that would agree with him. I suspect Clyde and Emma were also enjoying the adventure of living out West. Their daughter Helen was born in Nebraska in 1913, and their daughter Esther was born in Wyoming in 1915.

This picture was taken in Nebraska--I really hope they didn't tent-camp their way across the country, but Aunt Helen told me that her mother covered the floor of the tent with feed sacks, and Helen would dig in the dirt under them with her spoon. This suggests this may have been a long-term house for them!

When they got to Wyoming, Clyde worked on the ranch owned by Buffalo Bill Cody, breaking horses and delivering goods. I have not tried to confirm this, but Grandma and Helen were pretty firm that he did indeed work for Buffalo Bill! This will be a fun thread to research when I have the chance.

While they were living in Wyoming, and Grandma was pregnant with Esther, a family legend occurred. Lewis and Helen were playing Sunday School one winter Sunday morning (it happened to be Helen's second birthday), and Helen slipped off her chair and fell into the coal bucket, which tipped her toward the hot woodstove (they were living in a log cabin at this time.) Lewis grabbed her dress and pulled her back, but she was badly burned on her face and right eye.

Emma put egg whites and Vaseline on Helen's eye, bundled her and Lewis up, and took them out to find Clyde. Emma was very pregnant and couldn't carry Helen, so Lewis and she took Helen's hands and led her across the frozen Bighorn River.

When they found Clyde, the boss of the ranch hitched a couple of fast horses to a buckboard, placed the bundled-up Helen into her dad's arms, and slapped the horses to take them to the nearest town, 15 or 20 miles away, and to a doctor.

Helen's sight was not damaged, but she had a scar on her face for the rest of her life. The doctor praised Emma's fast action. I can't imagine how tough she must have been. This must have been an often-told story in the Fenton family, because Aunt Helen told me the whole thing, with all these details, when I visited her in 2001, about six weeks before she died.

The Fentons ended up traveling all the way to Oregon (where Grant had a stroke and traveled back home to die in 1916) but came back to Missouri by 1917 when Florence was born. Clyde traveled ahead and sent Emma and the kids along on the train with all their belongings--Helen told me she was terrified by one of the porters on the train, because she had never seen a black man before. Walter was also born in Missouri, and then the family moved to Kansas in the early 1920s, where Mary was born. They lived outside Newton, KS till 1940, and then moved back to Marion County, MO, where Clyde had grown up. This is the house and farm they bought--it was an old plantation house and I remember the ruin of it standing back behind Uncle Walter's house outside Philadelphia. He tore it down when I was in college. Grandma and Aunt Helen told me there were posts or shackles or something in the basement where slaves had been chained up before the war, and they hated to go down there.

 Here are some pictures of Clyde and Emma and their family over the years.

 Back row is Esther, a girl who I think was their hired girl, Helen, and Lewis. Front row is Walter, Emma, Florence, Clyde and baby Mary.

Here are Emma, Clyde, Lewis and Ruth in the back row, Esther, Walter, Helen and Mary in the front row.

 This is my favorite, I have it printed and framed in my living room. Helen, Florence, Mary, Lewis, Esther and Walter behind, Clyde and Emma in front. I'm sure you know they were of the Mennonite faith, and Great-Grandma Emma dressed plain her whole life.

There are several families to talk about, going back in time from here, but I'll start with Great-Grandpa Clyde's family, the Fentons. Clyde Fenton's parents were Ulysses Grant Fenton (1864-1916) (who went by the name Grant--did you and Marilyn name your sons after him? Or after Uncle Lewis?) and Lillian Sophronia Hathaway Fenton (1865-1946.) They had three children: Clyde, Bessie and Elza.

Here are Grant and Lillian in middle age. I'm a little fuzzy on this one--the children on the left are Clyde's sister Bessie's children but I don't have their names handy. Lillian is on the left with a baby, then Bessie with another baby, then Great-Grandma Emma with your grandpa Lewis, and I think the man next to her is Bessie's husband Lee Teninty. Behind are Grant and Clyde.

Grant Fenton was born in Illinois, and named Ulysses Grant after the Civil War general and President. His father Orville Fenton briefly served in the war under Grant's command, and must have been impressed with the man. Family lore says that they knew each other personally--they were both from the same area, I believe. Another topic that demands some research!

Grant joined the Mennonite church when he married Lillian. Grandma told me he was a very quiet and gentle man who never raised his voice. Here is Grant, again in middle age, on the right, with his mother, Sarah Coleman Fenton Gibbons (she remarried in 1885 after being widowed), in the middle and his siblings.

Grant Fenton's parents were Orville Fenton (1838-1874) and Sarah Coleman Fenton (1845-1916), who was called Sally. Here they are:

Orville Fenton was born in New York and moved to Illinois at some point, either as a child or a young man. He served as a chaplain in the 8th Illinois Cavalry from 1861-1862, but was discharged because of ill health, which shortened his life--he died about 12 years later. I imagine he picked up an illness in camp--more soldiers died of disease in the war than of battle wounds. Grandma had his discharge papers and also the application his widow Sally made for his army pension. He worked as a minister before he died.

Orville Fenton's parents were Stanley Fenton (1808-1876) and Lana Strunk Fenton (1810-1866). They were both born in New York, moved to Illinois, and then must have continued moving west, as she passed away in Iowa, and he passed away in Nebraska. I believe Stanley Fenton was also a minister.

Stanley Fenton's parents were Washington Fenton (1776-1864) and Sarah Mead Fenton (1782-1860.) They were both born in Connecticut but moved to New York between 1800 and 1810.

Washington Fenton's parents were Solomon Fenton (1749-1831) and Sibyl Snow Fenton (1749-1824.) According to my sources, Solomon was born in Connecticut and served in the Revolutionary War, but I don't have my Ancestry account activated right now so I can't look at the details.

Solomon's father was Ebenezer Fenton, and Ebenezer's father was Robert Fenton. I believe either Ebenezer or Robert, or possibly both, immigrated here from England or Ireland, but again, I need to find the info I have and/or do more research. And that's where my Fenton information ends!

Begat.

When I was a child attending Christian elementary school, we did a big musical every spring (always something Bible-related) and one year, one of the songs went, "Begat, begat, begat, that's genealogy; begat, begat, begat, that's where it's at." I remember nothing else about the play whatsoever, but that little earworm has stayed in my brain for 30+ years.

The song refers to various passages in Scripture that list the lineage of Jesus through the centuries. So-and-so had a kid, who had a kid, who had a kid...in the words of the King James Version, he "begat" a kid. He reproduced, he spawned a child, he (never a she, by the way, even though the "she" is integral to the whole thing) brought a person into existence.

When I was thinking about what to name my genealogy blog, the earworm made its way back into my brain. It seemed like a great title, since reproduction is the basis of genealogy. Where would we be without the begats?

I've dabbled in genealogy since I was a kid, thanks to an innate interest in history and two grandmothers who passed along their passion, their photos, and their memories to me. I hadn't done too much with it since the late 1990s, and then last year my brother asked me an ancestral question that got me digging through my folders, which sparked a whole new interest. In the time since I'd last done any genealogy work, the Internet had boomed, and resources my grandmothers could only have dreamt of were literally at my fingertips.

And so I am "begetting" this blog. My goal is to share, in a very informal way, some of my adventures in genealogy.